Advertisement
Date: 12 May 2026Time: 4:30pm
Speaker: Professor Bruno Herin, INALCO (Paris)
This talk will deal with the evolving linguistic profile of the Maltese islands in light of the demographic, social, and cultural transformations of the twentieth century. Particular attention will be given to the gradual erosion of the traditional urban–rural dialectal divide, alongside ongoing processes of de-dialectalisation and the increasing dominance of standard Maltese. Despite these developments, local varieties continue to persist, especially in more peripheral regions.
Focusing on the dialect of Mellieħa, the northernmost town of Malta and historically a predominantly rural area, the talk will present a selection of its most salient phonetic and phonological features. Drawing on a corpus of family recordings of elderly, non-mobile speakers, the study sheds light on a variety that has received relatively limited scholarly attention. The data reveal features such as the backing and rounding of /ā/, variation in the realisation of long high vowels, vowel harmony, and assimilation processes. Of particular interest is the presence, in some speakers, of creaky voice or vowel laryngealisation, interpreted as a reflex of etymological */ʕ/, offering new insights into the historical layering of Maltese phonology.
To attend kindly RSVP on [email protected].
Advertisement
Event Venue
University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq, MSD2080 Msida, Malta, University of Malta, Msida, MSD, Malta
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
